colette wilkinson 
 

It’s pitch black.  So black that closing my eyes makes no difference. Suddenly, I’m aware of my heart beating as my right hand grips the cold stone, feeling my way along the tunnel wall.

 

I wave my left arm in front of me. Nothing. I know there was someone behind me but where, I can’t be sure. I feel a wave of panic, like someone chasing you up the stairs. You know they’re going to catch you at some point, but when? I glance behind. Only black. My eyes search for something. Someone.

 

I am on a ghost tour of the murky tunnels of Fort Warren, an old Civil War prison on Georges Island, seven miles out to sea from Boston Harbor. Every weekend during the summer season, groups of up to 80 people join Park Rangers on these free tours, eager to hear the story of Melanie Lanier, otherwise known as the Lady in Black.

 

Melanie Lanier was the wife of an imprisoned Confederate soldier who traveled to Boston and broke into Fort Warren armed with a pickaxe and a pistol. She, her husband and several other prisoners were later discovered digging an escape tunnel and sentenced to death. Lanier was hanged wearing black cloth as robes—the same robes she is said to wear as she haunts the tunnels to this day.

 

As I continue in the darkness, a high-pitched screech echoes through the tunnel, followed by laughter and the rhythmic slaps of sandals against the stone floor. Kids chasing each other through one of the other tunnels. I see a light ahead. Stepping out onto the sun-drenched grass, I breathe a silent sigh of relief.

 

“I’ll be so jealous if you see her,” my self-titled “super nerd” friend Lindsay Christyn had told me before the trip. “I love ghosts. Sounds totally weird, but I do.”

 

Christyn is clearly not alone.  “People always ask the Rangers about the Lady in Black, but not all of them want to focus their energy on that,” says Park Ranger Alisa Scott, guiding us to the Scarp Gallery, an elevated lookout where the ghost is said to spend most of her time.

 

According to Scott, M.I.T was rumored to have visited in the 1970s to investigate the paranormal activity. “Supposedly, there was a picture that had some sort of image on,” she says.  

 

“I don’t know if I believe in her, per se,” she continues, smiling. “One of the Rangers that was here three years ago, his father was the caretaker, so he has been in every room that is locked now. He said there were unusual things that happened here. Lights turning on, noises that no-one could account for.”

 

Visitors catch one another’s glances and smile as they silently agree or disagree, but appear thankful for an entertaining story as the tour ends. One visitor in an army T-shirt stands with his back to the group, looking out over the deep blue water.

 

“I’m just here to look at the fort,” he laughs. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”